“How We Survive” is an award-winning podcast from Marketplace about the messy business of climate solutions. From the glitz and glam of Miami to the punishing Arizona desert, to a sinking island that our national security depends on, every season, we take listeners on an adventure. We explore the innovative, surprising, and occasionally disturbing ways that people are navigating solutions to a changing climate. Previous seasons explored the underbelly of the lithium extraction economy with Tech expert Molly Wood; investigated the red-hot Miami real estate market that’s increasingly vulnerable to storms and sea level rise with journalist Amy Scott; and ex...
Latest episodes
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19 min
Almost Midnight, from "The Midnight Rebellion"
From WBUR, here's a new kind of story, one that's all about the big questions and decisions we face. “The Midnight Rebellion” is a pick-your-own-path podcast set 100 years in the f…
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17 min
Your geoengineering questions, answered!
This season, we explored large-scale climate interventions that could be our last hope. One intervention in particular, solar geoengineering, made a lot of listeners’ heads spin. (…
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22 min
Should we mess with nature?
All season, we’ve been unpacking the controversial ways we’re messing with nature to save the planet. In this episode, we explore the wildest intervention to date: de-extinction. W…
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29 min
A Carbon Burial at Sea
We can't avoid catastrophic warming without also capturing and storing carbon dioxide — both the carbon we've already emitted and the carbon we continue to emit through industries…
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24 min
How conspiracy theories impact geoengineering efforts
Across the country, anti-geoengineering bills are being proposed in state legislatures. These bills would ban the intentional release of chemicals into the atmosphere for the purpo…
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33 min
Make It Rain
Can a technology used for war help prevent an environmental catastrophe in the making?Cloud seeding is a technique where particles, usually silver iodide, gets dispersed into cloud…
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25 min
Novel Solutions
Talk to enough experts about geoengineering and the conversation eventually turns to termination shock. That’s the idea that if we were to start cooling the planet and then suddenl…
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36 min
How to Dim the Sun
Could dimming the sun be the key to cooling things down before the climate crisis worsens? Some scientists say yes, that we can cool the Earth by launching tons of sulfur dioxide i…
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3 min
"How We Survive" returns May 27
The climate crisis is escalating. We have to decarbonize our economy, but we’re moving too slowly. So, what’s the backup plan?This season of “How We Survive” is about engineering n…
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27 min
The Carbon Gold Rush (bonus episode from "Drilled")
This week, we’re sharing an episode of another podcast we like — from another journalist named Amy.Award-winning climate journalist Amy Westervelt returns with a new season of Dril…
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18 min
Burning Questions: The EPA repealed the endangerment finding. Who are the economic winners and losers?
Earlier this month the Trump administration revoked the endangerment finding, which gave the federal government a legal basis for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. The move is a…
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52 min
Feeding the Family (bonus episode)
We’re dropping into your feeds today to share this special bonus episode. For many people gathering around the table this holiday season, things feel a little different. Maybe it’s…
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25 min
Is grass-fed beef more nutritious? How can I waste less food? Is insect protein tasty?
Throughout the season, we asked you all what questions you had about food, solutions and climate change, and you did not disappoint! In this episode, we find answers to your most p…
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33 min
The Dry Line
The 100th meridian is the longitudinal boundary separating the humid East and the arid West. Researchers say the dry line is moving east because of climate change, threatening some…
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23 min
What the World’s Farmers Can Teach Us About Climate Resilience
Climate change is transforming how the world grows and eats. In this episode, host Amy Scott talks with New York Times international climate correspondent Somini Sengupta about wha…
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33 min
The Land Problem
About a third of the greenhouse gases cooking our planet come from our food. Agriculture and livestock production are incredibly taxing on the planet. To curb the impact, we need t…
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32 min
The Uncanny Valley of Meat
If you have ever bitten into a plant-based burger and felt dissatisfied, or even grossed out, you’re not alone. In this episode, we explore the uncanny valley of meat and dive deep…
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30 min
Food Tour of the Future
Climate change is changing what we eat. As the planet heats up, foods like salmon, chocolate and coffee might be harder to come by and more expensive to buy. In this episode, the “…
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3 min
“How We Survive” returns Oct. 15
Imagine a future where chocolate and coffee are rare and expensive; where cheap, nutritional staples, like corn and wheat, are threatened.The climate crisis is a food and agricultu…
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51 min
The climate crisis is an economic crisis (bonus episode)
We’re dropping into your feeds today to share this special bonus episode.It’s a conversation between host Amy Scott, Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal and Pulitzer Prize-winning science…